Here it is, your first box. We were all excited packing it. As the season goes on , more and more things will be added. I have a suspicion that some of my newsletters do not make it to you, because they get sorted out as spam. Can you please reply that you get them? Thank you!

I went to an IT-conference at Clarkson University, where I gave a workshop on Excell for farmers. I went to a workshop on websites and was urged to start a facebook page. Now, I am not a computer chat person and can not imagine spending hours checking my "wall" and writing daily blogs. But if I miss getting to you, because that is your way of communicating I could think about it. What do you think?

In your box: The funny curly greenthings are garlic scapes. Garlic Scapes are the flower of the garlic plant. We pick it , so the plant puts more energy into the bulb. It tastes like garlic and is delicious in salad dressing, in an omelet or in a stir fry. You can use the whole stem and flower. Or you can make a garlic pesto with olive oil and sunflower seeds in a blender.

Next week we have peas.

The flower share has not officially begun, but since we had a few we send them. Tonight the flowers are on the watering schedule and may be more of them will decide to show their beauty.

For you Extra leafy friens we added a bag of Mixed Greens and a bunch of kale. In our section of "the yummies of kale" I was send a recipe to blend the kale with bananas and orange juice into a green energy drink. Hey, that's different , sounds kind of good to me.

I just came in from making beds for winter squash and melons. We planted them in 4" pots to get them started and they want out. Promises to them are renewed daily and the cucumber beetles found them in their pots outside the greenhouse. So hopefully we can plant them on Monday after harvest and cover them with row cover to keep the beetles out until they flower. Than we have to take off the covers so the bees and bumble bees can get to them. Before Monday I have to till them two more times and than we will fork and de-grass them and finally plant.

I had started cooking rice in a pot and had put it under towels and blankets to finish cooking and a soup was simmering. So when I came in hungry and tired, dinner was ready tataa and I am happy, fed, ready for the shower ( I am in line), the river would be more fun, but it is getting late and I feel lazy.

Here is a link to one of the games that Brandi selected for you, have fun

It is a nice cloudy morning, perfect for transplanting and perfect for farmers who sweated out all they had this past week. The past two weeks we got a lot planted and the ground is dry enough to run the tractor for mowing the fields before the weeds go to seed. We planted 300 more broccoli and 150 more cauliflowers 63 hot peppers and over 200 sweet peppers. The sprouting winter squash is planted in pots and growing well until we get to making beds for them. The 150 tomatoes and 50 cherry tomatoes were planted when it was still very wet and we left 3' of grass strips between the rows to not have to degrass all of the field. Now we have to deal with the grass strips. We keep mowing them for now. We have more crops to put in before we can worry about aisles. All crops are doing well except for the second planting of spinach that got too wet and got rusarium, a fungus that eats away the roots and the plant dies. We will replant the gaps with carrots.

Somehow 500 of the 1000 cabbages we seeded turned out to be kale oops... so what do we do about that? Well I think I will try to fit them into the garden and start educating you about the yummies of kale in case you don't know it yet. Then we will buy in 500 cabbages from the Bennetts organic farm. We used to buy in all our brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage) before we had the greenhouse. The greenhouse.... did I tell you how much I love the greenhouse? How did we farm 39 years without it? I go in there everyday and calm down. Kira goes in and randomly picks a lettuce and eats the whole thing within two minutes. She was kept out of it until they were big enough and now she feels like she is scoring something

Next Friday the CSA will start for the Potsdam group and you will get your first lettuce and spinach. I don't know if we will have peas yet. We have so many peas planted, more than ever, but they take their time, only one row is flowering and it takes a while to make the peas after that. We are checking every day. We will call you on Thursday to remind you. Please pick up Friday after 4.30pm, before late evening. The Caamanos (on 22 Waverly St.) let us use their porch and they should not have to worry about veggies wilting in a box. Please transfer veggies to a bag or box and leave the CSA box on their porch. If you can't pick up, give them a call at 265 1050 and let them know. They will donate the veggies.

If you have not signed up for this season this will be your last newsletter unless you ask to still get it. I am trying to be really good and write you at least every other week with news from the farm. If I can learn how to take photos off my camera, just one at the time, I can put that in the newsletter as well.

I hope you are enjoying those hot days. We go swimming at lunch or at the end of the day. Our neighbor Isis has a wonderful swimming hole in the river.